Starwood Preferred Guest Nights & Flights Redemptions

In a nutshell, Nights & Flights lets you redeem your Starwood points for both free nights and airline miles, enabling members to book an entire trip package with just their Starwood points. While I still think Starwood’s Cash & Points option is the way to pull the most value from your points, if you’re flush with Starpoints and low on cash and need to get away, the Nights & Flights redemption method might be a good fit for you.

First, the major downside: Nights & Flights is only available on Category 3 and Category 4 properties, so you can’t use it on redemptions at either the very high end or low end properties within Starwood (remember, though, you can just redeem points for free nights, and for the airfare portion, transfer Starwood points to your airline program of choice).

Read more: http://thepointsguy.com/2012/08/starwood-preferred-guest-nights-flights-redemptions-vs-marriott-hotel-air/#ixzz3pie8eye4

Unlike free-night and Cash & Points redemptions, you can’t book Nights & Flights online – you have to call into SPG Customer Care, and Starwood won’t book the flight portion of your award for you – you have to find the availability and make the redemption yourself on the airline once your points transfer.

There are a few other rules to keep in mind:

1. Nights & Flights awards must be ordered at least 14 business days prior to the arrival date for a US Airline and at least 30 business days prior to the arrival date for a non-US airline to ensure timely processing for the air portion of the award.

2. The free night reservation and the Nights & Flights award must be ordered on the same day as the transfer of Starpoints to airline miles.

3. Nights & Flights awards are for five nights. Additional free nights must be ordered/redeemed separately. If you don’t want to stay all five nights, you don’t have to, but you will not be refunded any points, and should advise the hotel at check-in that you won’t be staying the whole time.

4. If hotel award availability changes, the Nights & Flights award nights can be changed.

5. If a Nights & Flights award is canceled, the SPG member will only receive a Starpoint credit of 20,000 points for a Category 3 property, and 30,000 points for a Category 4 property. The 40,000 points transferred to airline miles will not be refunded.

6. Guests do not receive Starpoints or airline miles for their Nights & Flights reservations, though award stays now count toward Starwood elite status.

Read more: http://thepointsguy.com/2012/08/starwood-preferred-guest-nights-flights-redemptions-vs-marriott-hotel-air/#ixzz3pieKRIuQ

Worth It?
As always, whether Starwood’s Nights & Flights redemption is worth it really depends on your particular needs. If you’re looking for a five-night getaway at a mid-tier property and the airline awards you need to get there are plentiful and easy to book, you might as well save the extra 8,000 or 10,000 points.

Personally, I find I get a lot more value out of either free-night or Cash & Points redemptions with Starwood, and I like to have the flexibility of transferring points to miles (which I’ll cover in a future post) on my own timeframe for the exact awards I want. That’s just me, though – I have trouble committing to travel plans!

If yours are set and you can score a Nights & Flights redemption without any hassle or extra work, then you might as well save some points in the process.

Read more: http://thepointsguy.com/2012/08/starwood-preferred-guest-nights-flights-redemptions-vs-marriott-hotel-air/#ixzz3pieSjDHr